


Summer Reunion

by Coniferoussiblings



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: F/F, mabifica
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-26
Updated: 2015-09-26
Packaged: 2018-04-23 10:33:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4873486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Coniferoussiblings/pseuds/Coniferoussiblings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Pines twins return to Gravity Falls for another Summer now that they are out of highschool, and Mabel reunites with her old friend Pacifica who has developed some unexpectedly strong feelings for her.</p>
<p>NOTE: This story was written between The Golf War and Northwest Manor Mystery, so Dipper and Pacifica are somewhat more antagonistic toward each other than they probably would be otherwise. Hindsight's always 20/20!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It wasn’t fair – she had been old enough to drive for a few years now and even had a car of her own that her parents had presented her with on her 17th birthday, but she  _still_ had to get driven everywhere by the chauffeur. Naturally the luxury sports car that was technically hers was ‘too valuable’ to be trusted to the hands of a mere teenager, and at most Pacifica got to visit “her” vehicle in the garage and stare at it longingly while the keys stayed carefully under her parents supervision.

She could practically hear her mother’s voice echoing in her head while she slouched back in the extremely padded cushions of the family limousines backseat, trying hard to stay angry despite the extreme comfort of the vehicle.

“ _Pacifica, darling, why on earth would you want to drive yourself anywhere when we’ve already paid for a perfectly good chauffeur?”_ her mother had chattered absentmindedly earlier that afternoon as she glanced closely at the edges of her eyes in the enormous mirror of the master bedroom, checking for any signs that her most recent regimen of surgical treatments and expensive cosmetics weren’t in need of touching up.

“ _I_ **like** _to drive though! My car’s just sitting here uselessly in the garage, you could at least let me take it out on the weekends.”_ Pacifica had protested. Behind that statement there were plenty of things that she’d left unsaid… like the fact that it felt good to be in complete control of her situation, something that she’d only really gotten to experience in rare situations. Driving around alone wasn’t quite the same as complete independence, but it felt close enough for her to have missed it once she’d passed her drivers-ed class and gotten her license.

She hadn’t been behind the wheel since then.

“ _That sounds awfully close to ingratitude young lady,”_ her mother had snipped, the corners of her mouth curling ever so slightly downward at the word 'young’, _“The car is doing just what its meant to do – you have the nicest one of all the kids in your school and everyone knows it. When it’s time for you to go off to college you’ll have it all to yourself too, so just be patient till then.”_

Pacifica knew that arguing further with her mother would have been useless – a Northwest never budged from a decision when she’d made up her mind after all, because that would have meant that she had been _wrong_ at some point.

And everyone knew that Northwests were never wrong.

Some rebellious little spark in Pacifica’s heart had wanted to point out the brand new frown line that had seamed its way into her mothers face sometime between her last botox treatment and that afternoon, but _that_ would have turned out a LOT worse than a simple argument about the car, and she had plans for the day that would have been seriously impeded if she got grounded.

Mabel Pines had just arrived back in town a few days ago, along with her dorky brother, and as much as she hated to admit it to herself Pacifica had been looking forward to seeing her again ever since she’d left at the end of last summer.

For some reason that Pacifica could never understand she’d found herself drawn to the strange girl ever since they’d slowly put aside their childhood rivalry and started becoming friends with one another instead. It was a complete mystery why though – the girl had no fashion sense whatsoever, acted absolutely ridiculous, hung around with a bunch of weirdo’s and was totally broke. She fit in with Pacifica’s normal crowd like a snowman fit in Hell.

And yet…

Despite all that Pacifica found that she actually got along really well with her. Part of it may have been just because Mabel could apparently get along with almost anyone, but Pacifica knew that there was more to it than that. Maybe it was because hanging out with Mabel was as far as she could possibly get from hanging out with her own friends, who were honestly more like lackeys and accessories than actual equals. _They_ never had the guts to argue with her way too passionately about ridiculous things like whether squirrels would look best in scarves or hats or challenge her to weird contests all the time or give her dorky handmade gifts on random days instead of small elegantly wrapped presents on socially appropriate occasions.

Pacifica had yet to regularly wear one of the odd sweaters or scarves that Mabel had gifted her with over the years, mostly because she knew that she wouldn’t hear the end of it if her mother caught her in something that hadn’t come from a high end designer. She did enjoying trying them on when Mabel presented them to her though… the designs knitted into them may have been silly, but they were always incredibly comfortable and soft. Not to mention the fact that Mabel’s face would light up when she put them on, insisting that she twirl around and strike poses for her like a fashion model. Mabel’s smile had gotten a lot cuter once the braces had come off in high school, and Pacifica loved seeing it on her face.

_In a totally friendly and platonic way of course,_ Pacifica corrected herself when she caught the stray thought wriggling through her mind.

_Ah Denial, not just a river in Egypt anymore,_ she thought snidely.

So what if she thought Mabel was cute? It was a free country and she could think whatever she wanted.

_Doing_ something about those thoughts was another matter entirely though. She was a Northwest after all, and had to live up to a certain set of standards - particularly when it came to who she chose to… associate… with. That she was even _friends_ (that word still felt strange to think even after all these years) with Mabel was a big enough secret already. Her other 'friends’ had all been carefully pre-approved of, having met the necessary minimum standards her parents laid out: rich (but not _as_ rich), pretty (but not _as_ pretty), polite (to the right people)  & boring boring _boooring._

The fact that her thoughts sometimes drifted to _more_ than friendly territory when she was around Mabel would probably have made her mothers head explode, painting the walls of whatever room she was in at the time with plenty of makeup (but unfortunately very few brains). That her daughter would even consider entertaining the idea of being attracted to someone _poor_ was already terrible enough, but the fact that the certain someone was also another girl… well some things just don’t _bear_ thinking about. What _would_ the neighbors think after all darling?

_Doesn’t matter though,_ Pacifica thought to herself harshly, _because unlike some people I have self control. I wouldn’t throw myself at her like some sort of lovesick loser just because some part of me wants to. I’m better than that._

She sighed and idly inspected a handful of perfectly manicured nails in the sunlight that filtered in through the deeply tinted windows of the limo.

_Yeah, that’s definitely the real reason why I wouldn’t tell her how I feel and not the fact that I’d be terrified as hell about what Mabel’s reaction would be. Or of what my parents would do. Or what everyone would say. Or any of that other stuff that I know I really shouldn’t care about as much as I do, but do anyway._

“Miss Northwest - we’re here.” the driver announced, and Pacifica realized with a start that the car had stopped moving and been idling already for a few minutes. She glanced out the window and saw the precariously leaning pile of sun-bleached wood and faded paint and spiderwebs that was the Mystery Shack.

“Thank you James,” Pacifica said primly, reaching into her purse to pull out a crisp $100 bill and hand it up to him through the small window separating the cabin and backseat.

His fingers took hold of the corner of the bill and tugged, but Pacifica had not yet released it and it stayed firmly in her hand.

“You remember our deal, right? I was never here and if my parents ask I spent the afternoon at the mall.” Pacifica said, her voice cold and with an unsubtle note of threat running under the surface of the words.

“Just like last summer Miss, I remember.” the chauffeur said. He glanced at her face in the rear view mirror and saw her expression soften as she released the hold of the bill, allowing him to carefully fold it and place it in his front pocket alongside several others which the young heiress to the Northwest fortune was unaware of. The salary that James was paid wasn’t much but the bribes that the various family members gave him to keep their secrets were certainly adding up to a comfortable sum at least.

“I’ll call for you when I need to get picked up then - in the meantime you can go do whatever it is that chauffeurs like to do on your days off,” Pacifica said dismissively as she opened the door and exited the vehicle.

The limousines tires squealed in the dirt of the Shack’s unpaved parking lot as it peeled off back in the direction of town and for the first time in what felt like month’s Pacifica felt herself start to _relax._

* * *

The first person to greet Pacifica was not, unfortunately, Mabel but her twin brother Dipper who was lying on the old broken down yellow couch that was parked on the patio of the old building, a large book with a bloody dagger on the cover in his hands. Probably some sort of mystery or spy novel from what she knew of his tastes. He glanced up from the pages when he heard the sound of her expensive boots crunching on the gravel walkway leading up to the building and gave a small nod of greeting.

“Northwest,” he said idly, turning back to the book after his initial glance.

“Pines,” Pacifica replied, trying not to bristle too much at his dismissive attitude. It was true that they had never really gotten along, even after she had become friends with Mabel, but that didn’t mean that he had to be so _rude._ Would a simple ’ _Hello_ ’ have been that hard?

“Mabel’s upstairs getting the last of her stuff unpacked if you want to go in and see her,” Dipper said in the same idle drone as he flipped a page in his book.

“Thanks,” she replied. A small flash of meanness sparked in her brain and she added sweetly, “You did that pretty well - I think if you study hard you might have a real future as a doorman somewhere,”

“Gosh, would you be able to write me a letter of recommendation saying that?” Dipper asked in false excitement, “I think it would just about clinch my chances of getting into a good school - you know, along with my academic scholarship and all,”

“Congratulations,” Pacifica said dryly, “Nice to see your big head finally came in handy for something besides stretching out caps,”

“Well some of us actually had to study to get ahead - I’m sure that when the fall comes around your parents can just buy you a college to play around at for a few years,” Dipper snapped.

“Omigosh, you’re right – after all these years I finally see the error of my ways. I should have chosen to be noble and get born poor like you, but instead I selfishly made sure my parents had money when they had me. Gawd, I’m such a bitch aren’t I?” Pacifica said with a roll of her eyes.

Dipper frowned and looked like he was going to respond when a horrible squeaking scraping noise tore through the air above them. Pacifica glanced up and saw the small triangular shaped attic window of the shack creakily slide open and Mabel popped out over the windowsill like the bird in a particularly strange cuckoo clock.

“Is that Pacifica I hear?” Mabel called down, giving a wide friendly wave to the blonde.

“Yeah, I heard you guys were back so I thought I’d come over and visit or whatever,” Pacifica said, forcing her voice into its normal tone of dismissive casualness in the face of Mabel’s friendly enthusiasm.

“I’m sure gift shop sales will go through the roof when people hear that the legendary Pacifica Northwest has deigned to grace us peasants with her presence once again,” Dipper said sarcastically.

“Are you two fighting down there?” Mabel called down, a note of warning in her voice.

“No,” the pair called back up to her guiltily.

“Cause that sounded an awful lot like you two were fighting earlier - do I need to go down there and make you guys hug it out again?” Mabel asked.

“No thanks,” Dipper said, his voice strained.

“Yeah, we’re fine - all just friendly teasing,” Pacifica added. _Semi-friendly anyway, I mean its not like I HATE him or anything… he’s just kind of a jerk._

“That’s better,” Mabel called back, “Now are you gonna head on up here already or just spend all day flirting with my bro?”

Pacifica felt a sneer curl on her lip at the sound of Mabel’s joking suggestion and when her eye turned to Dipper she was annoyed to see her expression mirrored perfectly on his face.

“Oh, like you’d even stand a chance if you were?” she muttered at him under her breath.

“Please, I’m the one whose out of _your_ league - who could resist all of this?” Dipper stage whispered jokingly as he gestured at himself before turning back to his book.

On a second look Pacifica had to admit that he’d certainly filled out a lot in the past year, and definitely wasn’t the same skinny kid who she had first met all those years ago. In a particularly charitable mood she might even grudgingly admit that he was sort of good looking, in kind of a semi-athletic but still nerdy way. If you were into that kind of thing that is. Not that she’d ever say it to his face of course.

Even so he still wasn’t _her_ type though.

_Wrong Pines entirely._

Annoyed that she couldn’t think of a good comeback that wouldn’t drag their argument out further, and impatient to finally go see Mabel, the blonde teen swept past him and headed through the front door and up the stairs of the shack.

She took a deep breath as she paused at the door to the attic bedroom, gathering herself together before knocking.

Maybe her weird… infatuation… with Mabel was all just in her head? Maybe it was a phase and those thoughts and images she’d held in her mind ever since the end of their last summer together were going to just disappear when she got to see her face to face again? Maybe when the door opened all those annoying impossible emotions would just whither up and she could have a nice normal afternoon of hanging out with her weird, dorky and sort-of-only-geniuine-friend?

That would be good though wouldn’t it? More _convenient_ than whatever this weird turmoil that had been raging silently inside her head was certainly. More conventional. More Northwest.

Her knuckles rapped three times on the door and she didn’t have time to take a second breath before it was flung open and a squealing happy ball of Mabel flung herself into Pacifica’s chest and wrapped her in a tight hug, practically lifting her off the ground.

The feel of Mabel’s face pressed affectionately against hers cheek to cheek was already enough to send Pacifica’s heart pounding into overdrive and bring a flush to her face, and the smell of her thick cloud of silky brown curls being shoved into Pacifica’s nose was starting to flood her mind with memories of the carefree laughs and actual fun that she enjoyed with Mabel which were largely absent from her day to day life.

Yeah, those inconvenient feelings were definitely still there. If anything Pacifica hadn’t even felt a tenth of what she was feeling right this second and now that Mabel was here with her she didn’t care.

“Can’t breathe - might want to loosen your grip a little,” Pacifica gasped out at last when Mabel’s iron hug was getting a little too much to bear, even despite her enjoyment of the closeness.

“Yeah, sorry about that. Dipper’s sometimes said I probably should have joined up on the school wrestling team after getting one of those.” Mabel said sheepishly as she relaxed her arms and let Pacifica step back and straighten out her outfit.

“For once I agree with him on something, you could have probably brought in the gold,” Pacifica joked back nervously. She had a brief but guiltily enjoyable mental image of Mabel bearing down on her in a colorful wrestling leotard with a mischievous grin on her face, but quickly put it out of her mind.

“I probably could have - someone in the family should have tried to bring in some athletic glory at least. My bro was too busy winning science fairs and stuff to bother with it, and unfortunately mini-golf isn’t a legitimate school sport yet.” Mabel replied.

“You could have tried out for regular golf,” Pacifica suggested.

“Nah, if I don’t get to shoot the ball through a bunch of tiny buildings and dinosaurs and stuff then what’s the point?” Mabel said as she lead Pacifica back into the room and took a seat back on the creaking mattress of her temporary bed for the summer. Mabel patted the space beside her in a friendly manner, giving Pacifica one of those wide brace-free smiles that the blonde girl had found herself daydreaming of all through the year.

Pacifica took her seat, her face impassive and cool despite the rush of energy that she felt inside. It was a few moments before she realized that she’d been completely silent ever since she’d sat down and felt a completely alien streak of panic at the thought that she was being _awkward_ , and that was unacceptable.

She’d just about found the right words to say - something cool and detached and 100% Pacifica- when Mabel spoke first instead, completely derailing her train of thought.

“I’ve missed you,” the brunette had said warmly, punctuating the sentence with another one of her wide friendly smiles.

Pacifica felt the heat rise up her chest and flush her pale cheeks and at that moment she _hated_ her body for apparently making things so blindingly obvious. What’s the point of all this iron self control if her stupid face would just start _blushing_ on her without her permission?

“Yeah, its nice to see you too or whatever,” she replied, her eyes not quite rising to meet Mabel’s.

“So how have you been? I hadn’t heard from you all year until you decided to just drop in unannounced right now. What’s with the stealthy entrance by the way? Isn’t it against your rich girl code that you can’t go anywhere without a bunch of guys blowing trumpets and waving flags and stuff to lead the way?” Mabel said teasingly, but Pacifica saw a slight hurt hidden behind the words.

“Sorry, I think the heralds are on strike because Dad forgot their Christmas bonus last year,” Pacifica joked lamely. “The reception in this town is pretty bad too - its so hard to get calls out.”

“Candy and Grenda always seem to manage fine,” Mabel said quietly.

Pacifica felt a little flash of _guilt_ in her chest at that. That was another thing… she was never sure how she’d end up feeling around Mabel. Almost no one else could ever make her feel guilty about anything like Mabel could. Something about her big brown impossibly shining eyes made it feel like she was being mean to the universes sweetest puppy whenever she disappointed her.

“I don’t know… I guess I didn’t feel like I would have had a lot to talk about if I called you,” Pacifica admitted, “I mean, its all kind of the same stuff every day - school, school, school, party, school, blah blah… its boring.”

_Not to mention all those times when I almost texted you something super embarrassing and changed my mind at the last minute. Those were fun nights._

“Still would have been nice to hear from you,” Mabel said, prodding her accusingly with a finger, “but it’s good to finally see you again, so I’ll let it slide.” she continued, her voice softening.

“So, what sort of crazy nonsense have you guys been up to today?” Pacifica asked as she leaned back into the mattress and against the wall of the shack, trying not to think of all the dirt and junk that must have started latching onto her designer jacket just from brushing against the building.

“Oh it was super exciting - the goat was sick and I got to help!” Mabel said cheerfully.

“Help the goat… be sick?” Pacifica asked in confusion. _Ew._

“No silly, help give it medicine. Gompers is still pretty feisty for his age and he did NOT like the taste of it.” Mabel said, holding up a hand to show a row of colorful bandages laid across her fingers.

“Fun,” Pacifica said weakly. _Double ew._

“Aside from that though it was a pretty normal day… the gnomes were around again earlier to try and steal me back since I might _technically_ still be their queen, but Dipper had made this nifty spray that seems to work on them pretty good. The little guys can’t stand peppermint apparently- drives them nuts.” Mabel said with a chuckle.

“So, giving medicine to a goat takes precedence over being attacked by little monsters in terms of interesting stuff?” Pacifica asked in confusion.

“Well, yeah - it was just gnomes,” Mabel said dismissively.

“Half the time I can’t tell if you’re joking or not when you talk about that stuff,” Pacifica said.

“Please, if I told you even _half_ the stuff I’d seen in this place you’d think I was nuts,” Mabel said with a wave of her injured hand.

“I already think you’re nuts, telling me the rest would probably just make me finally call in the guys with the straightjackets and big nets on you.” Pacifica joked.

“Tell me Pacifica, what sort of straightjacket is the well dressed mental patient sporting this season?” Mabel asked in a faux serious voice.

“Well they are wearing the sleeves long this year, no surprise, but we’re seeing a trend in fancier decorative buckles for the straps,” Pacifica returned playfully, still feeling slightly out of practice at cracking jokes that weren’t at anyone’s expense.

Mabel gave a snort of laughter at her reply, and Pacifica felt a smile of her own start to spread across her face. Not the carefully practiced smile used for press photo’s or the snide grin from a particularly well delivered insult or the fake excitement she wore when she was given yet another expensive but useless ornament - an actual genuine smile of joy that she was able to make Mabel laugh.

Mabel’s sharp brown eyes caught sight of the rare expression and she responded to it with her usual playful teasing.

“Hey, that’s not catalog smile number 3? That looks like actual _happiness_ \- who are you and what have you done with the real Pacifica?”

Pacifica immediately scrunched her face up into a sour pout, but Mabel responded by contorting her own face into a variety of ridiculous expressions, reaching out to jab her blonde friend ticklishly the whole time. It was eventually too much for even Pacifica’s practiced self-control to take and she burst out into unrestrained laughter and leaned up against Mabel in a hug.

“I’ve missed you too weirdo,” she said happily.

_More than you know._


	2. Chapter 2

The afternoon faded into night all too soon, with the hours passing much more quickly than either of the two girls would have preferred since they were enjoying each others company. Pacifica really hadn’t wanted to leave the Mystery Shack but it was already much later than she’d originally intended to stay, and even _her_ parents might notice if she was gone for much longer

Well, maybe they would anyway- stranger things had been known to happen. Especially in this town.

Mabel’s sudden inspiration that Pacifica should stay the night for an impromptu sleepover had been _extremely_ tempting, but she had quickly made up an excuse about having an early morning horseback riding lesson to go to and ducked out of the Shack before the urge to stay became more than even her willpower could handle- she wasn’t made of stone after all.

Mabel had stopped Pacifica at the door before she had managed to complete her escape and given her a long warm goodbye hug topped off with a friendly kiss on the cheek that had set her blonde friends heart beating like crazy in her chest. Pacifica shivered quietly to herself as she walked out into the darkness of the Mystery Shack’s parking lot and toward the headlights of the waiting limousine… it had been a _serious_ physical effort not to lean her face in and plant her own lips against Mabel’s right then and there. She wondered if they would have felt as soft and warm as she often fantasized that they would… like brushing her lips against silk. Knowing Mabel they’d probably taste like candy too, an almost sugary flavor mingling with-

 _Get a grip on yourself Pacifica,_ she silently scolded herself as she opened the car door and slumped herself down into her seat, laying her usual expression of bored disdain back over her face like a mask and hoping that she wasn’t _blushing_ again. Thankfully it was mercifully dark inside the car, so even if she was no one would be able to tell.

“Have a good time miss?” James asked, his voice carefully not expressing more than a polite and mostly feigned interest. He knew when it paid to look like you didn’t really care what your boss was up to and this definitely seemed like one of those times.

“It was fine,” she snapped back, “Can we get going now? I don’t want to sit around in this parking lot all night.”

The chauffeur kept his mouth shut for the rest of the ride back, which was fine by her… she was busy thinking back on the day, already missing the moments that had passed. It was so _stupid_ though - why should one little afternoon visit make her feel this good? They hadn’t even done anything that special… just sat around talking for a while with each other in the strangely comfortable attic of the old shack, leaning up against one another in Mabel’s too-small twin bed…

So why did that simple afternoon chat still feel more fun than any of the parties she’d gone to that year, or make her happier than any of the awards she’d gotten for the various contests she’d won?

 _Well… it’s not like I don’t actually know why,_ Pacifica thought to herself as the limousine drove through the tall gates of the Northwest’s mansion, pulling around to let her off at the long walkway leading to the building. She paused briefly before opening the door and tried to compose her thoughts about the day.

_Its useless trying to deny anything at this point, especially to myself… I mean, if I wasn’t sure I liked her before I definitely know now after seeing her again._

Pacifica wasn’t as much of a fan of cheesy romcoms or terribly overwritten romance novels as Mabel was, so a phrase like ‘head over heels in love’ wouldn’t have immediately occurred to her - but if she’d heard it at this moment she would have agreed with it 100%. It was definitely a cliché, but that’s exactly how she had felt when she’d been there side by side with her smiling, laughing, ridiculously cute friend - unbalanced and slightly dizzy and so stupidly happy just to be alive and there at her side.

Pacifica realized that a drunkenly happy grin had started to spread over her face once again and she quickly wiped it off before opening the front door making her way into the house. The imposing hallway of the mansion seemed even larger in the dark of the night and her footsteps echoed on the stone floor of the foyer loudly, growing fainter in the distance. The few times that Mabel had visited her here she’d commented that her parents house looked like the set of a high-class horror movie at night and at times like this Pacifica couldn’t help but agree with that assessment. Especially when it was totally silent as it was now.

Pacifica wasn’t really sure where anyone else was right now… the house never had a particularly large staff aside from a few maids and the chauffeur and they would probably be asleep by now. Her parents could be anywhere from their rooms down the hall or Hawaii for all she knew since they tended to fly off at a moments notice for parties or conferences or other events. Sometimes she’d even received souvenirs from trips they had taken when she hadn’t even been aware that they were gone. Pacifica made her way up the central staircase and to her door, throwing it open to reveal an area larger than the Mystery Shack’s living room. It was an elegantly appointed room, with a large canopy bed, plush maroon carpeting, a state of the art entertainment center & a variety of extremely valuable and tasteful paintings hanging on the walls. It was perfectly gorgeous but it had all the warmth and comfort of a furniture ad in a upscale catalog - sterile as a petri dish. Pacifica’s past attempts to try and put some of her own personality into the layout of the room had clashed with the advice of her mother’s decorator and her own suggestions had been gently but very firmly vetoed. The only thing that could really said to be hers was the glass fronted trophy case that sat butted up against the far wall, containing all of the various ribbons, trophies & medals that she’d won ever since her first elementary school field day. The Mystery Shack’s cheap plastic party crown held a special place of honor in the case - a bittersweet reminder that while a Northwest _never_ lost that didn’t mean that they always deserved to win.

_I can’t believe that I used to hate her for that night… It’s just sounds so incredibly petty when I think about it now. Was that really what I was like back then?_

_I can’t deny that I did though - I honestly hated Mabel’s guts for beating me in a contest to win a stupid $2 plastic hat. No, that’s not really it… I hated her for standing up to me. For not just letting me walk all over her like everyone else had all my life. _For being better than me at something.__

__Ugh… I can’t believe she even wanted to hang out with me in the first place after how I had treated her before. She’s way too nice for her own good._ _

The blonde girl yawned, suddenly feeling the tiredness from the day catching up with her and began to slip out of her clothes: jacket, skirt and top all neatly folded and placed in their appropriate hampers for cleaning. Pacifica pulled open a drawer from the large chest and absentmindedly reached for her pink silk pajamas, of which she had several pairs, but stopped as she was seized by a sudden impulse. She glanced around the room quickly, though needlessly since there wasn’t any sign of anyone around the house much less here in her private room, and shut the drawer. Pacifica locked the door to the bedroom, walked over to her closet and then began to dig around in the back, reaching past racks of clothing that she had long since outgrown but had never bothered to throw away until she found exactly what she’d been looking for. It was a large gym bag, the one that she’d used to carry her old mini-golf equipment in back when she was just a kid. She unzipped it quickly and dumped its contents out on the floor, spilling a colorful pile of oddly mismatched garments at her feet. Sweaters.

Pacifica reached her hands into the pile, enjoying the textures and feeling around until she found one that felt just right. It was mostly blue, being a darker navy blue at the bottom half of the torso and knitted to look like the waves of the ocean and a lighter sky blue at the top half. There was a cute looking red and white sailboat floating along on the sea of yarn, it’s triangular sails puffed wide out to catch some nonexistent wind.

_I remember when Mabel gave this to me… I had asked her what the boat was for and she’d said it was to commemorate us 'burying the hatchet’ or whatever that old timey phrase she’d used was._

_“ _See, the boat represents our new friendship - it works on a couple of levels_. Friendship. Friend-SHIP - get it?” _ Mabel had said, her face struggling to contain the childish grin that was starting to spread across it.

 _“Yeah, I think I’ve managed to figure it out.”_ Pacifica had replied dryly, accepting the sweater with a polite smile. She remembered how she’d looked at it critically, not quite believing what she was seeing or the fact that someone had decided to give a gift like _this_ to _her._ It was just so… _silly._

Pacifica didn’t _do_ silly. Silly was undignified, and since she lived her life in the spotlight she had been _strongly_ encouraged never to do anything that would potentially embarrass the Northwest name. Even if her family name had later turned out to be built on a shaky foundation of lies it hadn’t changed the fact that to the people of this town it still mattered quite a lot, and to her parents it mattered even more than that.

Still though… even if it was silly… no one had ever _made_ her anything before. She had closets full of clothes worth more than the deed to the Mystery Shack and boxes full of jewelry bought from high end boutiques, but she’d never been given something that a person had to put more effort into than swiping a credit card to get.

 _“Thanks,”_ Pacifica had mumbled, her voice sounding almost grudging from her effort to disguise the oddly strong feeling of gratitude over receiving such a simple gift.

 _“Whoa, no need to get so enthusiastic there Pacifica- Calm your tits girl!,”_ Mabel had said with a teasing grin, and Pacifica had chuckled out half in surprise.

She hadn’t really been hanging out with Mabel for long at that point and it had still been kind of weird having someone just talk back to her without any hint of respect or apology in their voice. She’d come to expect it from almost everyone so much that its absence was jarring, but also strangely welcome. She hadn’t wanted just another lackey when she had decided to go see Mabel that day… she’d wanted to spend time with someone different. An equal. Someone who treated her like a person and not just a wallet with lipstick and a fancy reputation.

 _“I really do like it though,”_ Pacifica had added in response to Mabel’s comment, feeling a little more at ease.

 _“I knew you would - you are a girl of wealth and taste after all,”_ Mabel had said in her most snooty accent.

 _“Wealth yes, though considering I’ve got you for a friend now the taste part is questionable,”_ Pacifica had teased back, her voice lacking the characteristic edge that usually came with cracks like that.

 _“Pfft, having me for a friend is the first thing you’ve done that shows you have ANY taste - I know all about the finer things in life after all. Stick with me kid and maybe one day we’ll even find a way to pull that giant stick out of your butt,”_ Mabel had said jokingly, grabbing Pacifica around the shoulders and waving her arms out wide like a con-man in an old movie about to beguile some young sucker.

Pacifica shook herself quickly out of the memories of that far away afternoon. It had all taken place years before her feelings toward Mabel had moved beyond simple friendship, but she couldn’t look back on those days without feeling her memories start to become colored by that strange glow that accompanied all her thoughts about Mabel lately.

 _Four years later and she’s still such a dork,_ Pacifica thought to herself with a smile as she traced her fingers absentmindedly over the lines of the boat, wondering how exactly she’d managed to make it in the first place. Mabel had tried to teach her knitting once a few years ago, but Pacifica’s competitive edge had just gotten her frustrated at being less-than-great at something in front of a peer and she’d grumpily given it up after only one afternoon. Old habits die hard after all, and not wanting to feel like she’d lost at _anything_ was a very hard one to break.

Pacifica slipped the cozy garment down over her head and then stuffed the rest of the sweaters back in the bag before returning to bed, enjoying the soft feel of it against her skin. It had been made a few years ago and she’d done a lot of growing since then (it was noticeably tighter up around the chest for one thing), but fortunately Mabel always tended to knit them kind of extra long and baggy so it wasn’t really uncomfortable to wear even now. Pacifica glanced at herself in the mirror and smiled. Maybe it wasn’t as elegant as silk pajamas but it felt a lot warmer, in more ways than one.

She climbed into her bed and pulled the thick goose down comforter loosely over herself, snuggling deep into the slightly squashy overstuffed pillows and mattresses and let out a small yawn as a fresh wave of drowsiness washed over her. It had been a good day, but also a strange one. She had been so stressed out and conflicted for months about her feelings, but when she had finally came face to face with Mabel all of that _worry_ that had been nagging at her had vanished.

Everything that she’d feared had come true - she was 100% no-doubt-about-it attracted to Mabel and for some reason she felt _great_.

_I want to see her again soon… I didn’t really know how much I’d missed her till she was right there in front of me. She looked like she missed me too… she said she did.  
_

_Probably just in a purely friendly way though. She has no idea that I feel this way about her… and she probably never will. I’m just a friend that Mabel see’s a few months out of the year who’s too scared of how she feels to even call her up when she’s not around._

_Me, scared of something… who would even believe it if I told them?_

Pacifica turned over on her side and resettled into her pillows, though her discomfort was purely mental.

* * *

The morning sun was barely peeking up over the tops of the trees surrounding the Mystery Shack, but the sounds of activity could already be heard from the kitchen.

“Hey Dip, do you have anything supernatural-ish planned for us today?” Mabel asked her brother from across the breakfast table as they ate their usual bowls of off-brand cereal.

“What do you mean?” Dipper asked as he glanced up from reading the riddles and jokes from the back of the cereal box.

“You know - like a monster hunt or maybe getting abducted by aliens or something.” Mabel said only half-jokingly.

“For today? Um… not that I know of. Usually the aliens like to set up their appointments a week in advance. Why do you ask?” he said.

“Oh, well I was thinking of taking a day off and going to hang out with Pacifica this afternoon.” she replied.

Dipper rolled his eyes slightly.

“Knock yourself out - but please don’t drag me along this time. Going to the mall with you guys last summer was probably the longest 4 hours of my life.” Dipper said.

“We were there like, 40 minutes.” Mabel scoffed.

“Well if felt like four hours anyway,” Dipper grumbled.

“I still don’t know why you and Pacifica can’t get along better - you’ve honestly got a lot more in common than you realize.” Mabel said.

“Maybe we do, but I’m not too interested in finding out how much.” Dipper said with a shrug.

“See - you guys are both judgmental and stubborn! The potential for friendship pretty much makes itself at that point,” Mabel said triumphantly.

“I guess I’ll go hang out with the Multibear or something - I haven’t seen that guy in ages.” Dipper said, pointedly ignoring her jibe as he slurped down the last of the milk from his bowl and started to head out the room.

“Have fun with your monster friend!” Mabel called out cheerfully, waving a quick goodbye wave at Dipper before turning back to her breakfast to get it finished so that she could start the fun part of her day.

It had been a couple of days since she’d last seen Pacifica and Mabel was really looking forward to hanging out with her again today - well possibly hanging out with her anyway. Mabel hadn’t planned this out in any way really, she was just hoping that her blonde friend would be free when she gave her a call later today. She was pretty sure it would all work out though - in her experience if you just started your day with a smile and did your best things usually did.

She was sort of annoyed at Dipper for the attitude he always seemed to have around Pacifica but she knew it was just his sometimes endearing, sometimes annoying brotherly protective instincts acting up. He’d never really forgiven Pacifica for how she’d treated Mabel back when they had first met the rich girl years ago and had always been suspicious of her motives since then.

 _You’d think after years of me hanging out with her without any problems that he’d finally be convinced that this isn’t some kind of ’_ Carrie _’ situation… honestly I don’t think ole Paz would have the patience to be fake nice to anyone for that long, even for the sake of a mean joke.  
_

Mabel hummed a tune to herself as she dug around through the huge pockets of her sweater for her phone, occasionally pausing to examine some interesting trinket or object that she’d picked up earlier and forgotten about till now though she stopped and shook the distractions from her head once she’d finally recovered the sticker-pocked phone from the depths of its woolen prison. The phone rang a few times before Mabel was rewarded with the sound of a somewhat dazed and cranky Pacifica answering on the other end.

“Do you have any idea what time it is?” Pacifica grumbled in her ear, her sleepy voice contrasting with the cheerful picture that Mabel had of her on the contacts screen of her phone.

“Time for you to get your butt out of bed - we’re hanging out today!” Mabel declared.

“Uh huh - and I wasn’t consulted on this because?” Pacifica asked sarcastically.

“Hey, you get to drop in on me uninvited so I get to do it to you too - that’s how friendship works,” Mabel said cheekily.

Pacifica grumbled to herself for a bit and shook the last traces of grogginess from her head.

“Alright, just give me an hour to get ready and I’ll get the chauffeur out of his kennel.” she replied.

“Awesome! Wait, you don’t actually keep him in a kennel right?” Mabel asked only half-jokingly. The ways of the rich were still mysterious to her and she’d only visited Pacifica’s house a handful of times in the past.

“Of course we don’t - well not anymore anyway. Grandpa was kind of a freak.” Pacifica joked back dryly.

“Alright - an hour then!” Mabel chirped back.

Mabel spent some time getting herself ready for the day ahead, trying to think of all of the fun possibilities the day had to offer. Maybe they could go spend some time out at the lake? Or perhaps a visit to the arcade where they’d had a casual ongoing rivalry in trying to beat each others high scores in various games over the past few summers? Maybe the movies - there was a new romantic comedy out that had a famous wrestler trying to break into Hollywood as the lead actor so it was guaranteed to be comedy gold even if the movie was terrible!

She was lost in thought about the seemingly endless potential for fun the day had to offer when her phone suddenly chimed out in her pocket and she glanced down at the screen.

 _Pacifica:_ Bad news. My mom and dad took the limo out of town and they won’t be back for a few days. I’m kind of stuck here at home till then.

Mabel groaned and slumped back onto the bed. She’d really been looking forward to today…

_Well… with a little determination this can still work out._

Mabel glanced out the window and spotted the Mystery Shacks old reliable golf cart sitting unattended in the parking lot, and she knew for a fact that Stan always kept the keys hanging carelessly on a peg by the door. She grinned to herself and reached for her phone.

 _Mabel:_ Never fear princess - the cavalry’s on the way to rescue you from your prison!

 _Pacifica:_ What does that even mean?

 _Mabel:_ Don’t worry, its going to be awesome - I’ll be there in like, 30 minutes.

Mabel snatched up her handbag and dashed down the stairs, determined to have an awesome day today no matter what obstacle came up. She only got to see Pacifica a few times out of the year and she wasn’t going to let a little thing like this stop her!

* * *

The sound of the doorbell echoing through the halls was surprising since no one had buzzed the gate for entry. Pacifica shooed the maids off and went down to the front door herself and found Mabel waiting there for her looking somewhat disheveled but still cheerful.

“How did you get over the fence? It’s 9 feet tall.” Pacifica asked her, slightly impressed.

“Grappling hook.” Mabel replied, twirling the dangerous device once like an old west gunfighter before tucking it back into the recesses of her huge colorful handbag.

“Should have guessed. Thanks for coming to get me - I think I would have gone crazy if I had to stay shut up in here till my parents got back,” Pacifica said with a small but sincere smile.

Mabel glanced around the opulent foyer of the mansion and turned back to her friend with a grin.

“Oh yeah, I can just see you rotting away in this hellhole. How have you even survived this long?” Mabel teased.

Pacifica crossed her arms and pouted in response.

“You’ve gotten a lot meaner since we started hanging out, do you know that?” Pacifica snipped.

“Maybe, but you’ve gotten a lot nicer so it evens out. I guess we’ve rubbed off on each other more than we thought,” Mabel said with a grin, reaching out to pull Pacifica into a friendly hug of apology.

Pacifica felt her cheeks flush at the mental image of Mabel rubbing on her and returned the hug shyly, annoyed with herself since she could _feel_ her cheeks starting to color even more just from the warm pressure of Mabel’s arms around her. She squirmed out of her sweater-clad friends grip before too long, ostensibly just to straighten out her outfit but mostly to calm her way-too-fast heartbeat.

“So, what kind of plans did you have for the day?” Pacifica asked to try and fill the awkward pause.

Now it was Mabel’s turn to blush, and she coughed and glanced down at the floor.

“Yeah about that… um… do you happen to have a golf cart battery lying around somewhere in this giant palace of yours?” she said shyly.

Pacifica quirked an eyebrow at her friend.

“Golf cart battery?”

“I kinda borrowed the cart from the Shack but it ran out of juice on the way over here…” Mabel said.

“Oh… so I guess we’re both stranded then.” Pacifica said.

“Yeah, this wasn’t a really well thought out rescue,” Mabel said jokingly, glancing down again bashfully.

Pacifica smiled at her friend. _She looks really cute when she gets shy like that…_

“Well, I’m glad you came anyway. I mean, its not like we don’t have stuff to do around here… it just would have been boring to be alone.” she said reassuringly.

“Ugh… if I just had a real car this wouldn’t have happened in the first place.” Mabel said in frustration.

“Yeah, I know that feeling.” Pacifica replied moodily.

Mabel shot her friend a questioning glance.

“I thought you did have a car though? You mentioned you got one for your last birthday when we hung out earlier.” Mabel said.

Pacifica frowned at the memory.

“I can’t use it though, remember? My parents are the ones with the keys. They think I’m going to go smash it into the town hall or something,” Pacifica grumbled.

Mabel glanced at Pacifica thoughtfully, rubbing her chin.

“Would you want to see a neat trick that Grunkle Stan showed me once?” Mabel asked.

* * *

It was a sleek hot pink beast of a machine with an engine that roared like a rabid jaguar when Pacifica so much as gently tapped the gas pedal. Currently that very gas pedal was solidly pinned to the floor of the car by a foot encased in one of a $500 pair of shoes, sending the luxury sports car careening down the road at a truly breathtaking speed while its driver whooped and cheered with unbridled enthusiasm.

Mabel certainly found the speed breathtaking anyway - she wasn’t sure when the last time she’d actually breathed was and she wondered if the cars luxury leather seats were going to have her fingerprints permanently ground into them from the sheer force of her terrified grip.

 _That’s probably the only way they’re going to be able to identify my body,_ Mabel thought grimly as her wide eyes took in the sight of the trees on the roadside turning into a vaguely green and brown blur, _because when this thing crashes I’m going to look like a can of tomato paste with some colorful yarn stuck to it._

Mabel turned her head away from the horrifically hypnotizing sight of the road flashing by and saw the look of absolute _joy_ on Pacifica’s face from being behind the wheel of her car for the first time in months.

 _Maybe hotwiring this death-trap was not one of my brightest ideas,_ Mabel thought regretfully as her stomach lurched violently when Pacifica wheeled the car into a wide swooping turn.

“Thank you so much for hotwiring the car! This was an awesome idea!” Pacifica practically squealed, turning a bright grateful smile to Mabel.

“Watchtheroadwatchtheroadfortheloveofgodwatchtheroad!” Mabel babbled back at her incomprehensibly.

_So this is how I’m going to die… after nearly being killed by robots and dinosaurs and monsters it turns out its going to be a car crash. That’s just disappointing!_

“You’re so paranoid - you’re like my driving instructor,” Pacifica teased, turning her eyes back to the road and taking a deep breath in through her nose and releasing a cheerful exhalation.

“Maybe we could try going a little less than the speed of light for a bit?” Mabel suggested hopefully.

Pacifica glanced down at the dashboard and saw the speedometer reading in the triple digits.

_Oops._

“Sorry - I guess I just got a tiny bit carried away,” Pacifica said somewhat sheepishly, relieving the pressure on the pedal till the car slowed to a relatively sedate 70 miles an hour.

“It’s okay… just… just try not to kill us. I’d hate to have gone through all of high school for nothing.” Mabel said.

Pacifica didn’t respond, but she smiled to herself once again. It just felt so _good_ to be driving again… the adrenaline rush was almost overwhelming.

“Alright - so what’s on the agenda for today again? I kinda forgot the plan once we started moving,” Pacifica confessed.

Mabel gulped to herself as the car swerved and danced along the backroads leading into town.

“I think I did too,” she said, “but I remember something about needing to get a new battery for the cart.”

“Gotcha - that one’s on me since you showed me how to get my car moving,” Pacifica said with a grin.

“I have become death, destroyer of roads,” Mabel mumbled to herself as the car roared into the outskirts of the unsuspecting town.

* * *

Somehow, against all odds, Mabel survived the day and actually ended up having a fantastic time. True, they’d gotten stopped by Sheriff Blubbs and Deputy Durland at one point after the car had screamed down Main street just slightly slower than the speed of sound but when Pacifica had introduced them to Benjamin Franklin and his identical quintuplets they’d agreed to overlook the incident. To Mabel’s relief Pacifica had agreed to not try and break break the laws of physics from behind the wheel for the rest of the afternoon and they’d spent their carefree hours around town managing to squeeze as much fun as they could out of the sleepy little city. It turns out two girls, one with nearly unlimited funds and the other with a nearly unlimited imagination, can actually accomplish quite a lot in just one day… parts of the town would possibly never recover.

The moon had risen up pretty high by this point and the two friends were busily working together by the roadside trying to switch out the worn out battery of the golf cart for the brand new deluxe model that Pacifica had bought for Mabel in gratitude for the afternoon of fun.

“I still don’t see why you don’t just call your big weird manservant over to help with this,” Pacifica grumbled as she helped Mabel heft the old battery out from the engine area and over to the back seat of the little cart so it could be re-charged back at the Shack.

“What’s the point of stealing the cart in secret to go joyriding if I just announce that I took it?” Mabel said as she wiped the sweat from her forehead, looking over her handiwork with satisfaction.

“Won’t they obviously know you’re the one who stole it since the rest of them are at home?” Pacifica asked.

“Well obviously yeah, but its the _principal_ of the thing.” Mabel said with a shrug.

There was a brief pause once the job was done and the girls were sitting down against the cart and taking a breather. Now that the cart was fixed Mabel would probably be taking off again and Pacifica would probably have to head back home, but neither of them were in a hurry to head back to face the consequences of their actions for the day yet.

“Thanks a lot for coming to rescue me from boredom today,” Pacifica said.

“Boredom and me are old enemies - I know all of its weak spots,” Mabel joked.

Pacifica chuckled and shot a sideways glance at Mabel. Her face was slightly flushed from all the work required to get the golf cart in working order again, but it just seemed to add a glow to her cheeks that looked _interesting_ in the moonlight. Pacifica found her eyes drifting down to stare at the gentle cupids bow curve of Mabel’s soft round lips which glistened from a coat of shell-pink gloss and she was suddenly intensely interested in finding out what flavor it was. She guiltily darted her eyes back up when she caught Mabel’s large brown eyes turning in her direction.

“I wish every day could be this fun,” Mabel said somewhat wistfully.

“Yeah… me too,” Pacifica agreed, glancing back at Mabel’s face once again. Her tongue darted out to moisten her dry lips and she briefly thought about leaning in to place them against Mabels…

_Get a hold of yourself Pacifica… you’re starting to lose it… must be all the endorphins from earlier messing with your head.  
_

Mabel sighed and started to rise up, stretching out her arms and legs.

“Well, I guess I should get back home to the Shack… I’m sure Stan and Dipper are wondering what I’ve been up to.” she said.

“You sure you’re going to be okay just driving that cart home at night? I think I could walk faster than it moves,” Pacifica said as she rose up and brushed stray leaves off from her clothes.

“After what I’ve been through this afternoon I think I’m looking forward to going a little slow,” Mabel said only half-jokingly.

“I can’t believe the great Mabel Pines is scared of going a tiny bit fast,” Pacifica teased.

“Well, I guess I’m not as totally fearless as Pacifica Northwest, speed demon extraordinaire!” Mabel said.

“Oh I am _far_ from fearless,” Pacifica said unthinkingly.

“Really? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you actually scared of anything - even when you were about to be murdered by little golf-ball people you were still more pissed off than terrified,” Mabel said, sounding interested.

_Why did I say that? Ah, now she’s going to be curious - I know how this girl works… any second now it’ll be -_

“Sooooo… what exactly are you scared of?” Mabel asked, leaning toward Pacifica with an interested expression on her face.

“Nevermind, doesn’t matter,” Pacifica mumbled. _I just mumbled! Since when do I mumble?_

“Come on - you know how this ends, either you tell me or I tickle it out of you,” Mabel said in a playfully threatening manner.

_Honestly… mumbling… blushing… being shy like some kind of loser! Even if I **do** like her that doesn’t mean I have to turn into a total wuss about it. I’m still Pacifica-friggin-Northwest dammit! I know who I am and I know what I want and I shouldn’t be scared of that._

“You really want to know?” Pacifica asked, feeling her heart start to pound in her chest harder than the overworked engine of her car had all afternoon.

“Yeah, lay it on me.” Mabel said.

 _Good choice of words,_ Pacifica thought.

Pacifica took a deep breath and then made a step toward Mabel to place her hands on her shoulders. The shorter girl tilted her head slightly up at Pacifica with a questioning look, but she froze when she caught sight of the expression she saw on her friends delicate features… a mixture of hesitation and determination and something else that was pleasantly familiar… Pacifica tilted her head slightly and Mabel unconsciously mirrored the gesture and before she knew it she found herself being pulled in close, her face just inches from Pacifica’s and their breaths mingling together in the cool night air.

 _So close,_ Pacifica thought.

_Should I… do I… can I…_

_Yes._

Tossing aside all of the worry and doubt and fear that had been clouding her mind for months, Pacifica leaned in and gently pressed her lips against Mabel’s, wrapping her arms possessively around her neck to pull her in closely against her. Mabel stayed frozen in shock for the space of a few heartbeats before she felt something inside her melt from the contact and her own hands hesitantly wound out around Pacifica’s slim waist as she tilted her head back and began to kiss her back, her mouth parting slightly in invitation which Pacifica eagerly accepted. Pacifica’s heart was pounding like a jackhammer in her chest but there was a sharp current of pure unfiltered happiness running through it all - after countless times of thinking of this very moment it had _actually_ happened and it was better than she’d imagined. Being here… feeling her… tasting her… feeling her kiss back…

The moment lasted less than a minute, but it seemed to stretch on for much longer before their lips parted and the two were left staring at one another with slightly stunned expressions.

 _It was strawberry flavored,_ Pacifica thought light-headedly.

“Oh…” Mabel said quietly, and then fell silent.

“Yeah,” Pacifica answered as she suddenly felt something like panic start to overtake her. She stepped back.

“So is that what you were-” Mabel began

“Yes… I was scared to tell you about… this,” Pacifica said, feeling that damned uncomfortable awkward feeling start to flush over her again now that her sudden rush of bravado had worn off.

“Ah… yeah… Um… I think… uh… I think I might need to think about this,” Mabel said somewhat dazedly.

“I’m… I’m gonna go now,” Pacifica said quickly, glancing at Mabel again and seeing a slightly lost expression on her face.

“But-” Mabel said.

“Today was really fun… sorry if that was weird, bye.” Pacifica said as she started to back away toward her car.

“Hey!” Mabel exclaimed suddenly, stamping her foot down hard into the ground and sending a puff of leaves up in the air.

Unconsciously Pacifica froze in her tracks and turned to Mabel, feeling sick with dread in her heart. This was it… she’d screwed it all up… she’d just lost her only real friend and all because she couldn’t just keep her stupid mouth shut…

“Look - no matter what… I mean… Whatever happens, I still want us to hang out, okay?” Mabel said, her face coloring slightly.

Pacifica stared back.

_Okay… maybe its NOT the end of the world._

“Yeah, me too,,” Pacifica said, feeling slightly awkward in spite of herself.

“Cool… um… have a safe drive home,” Mabel said as she sat down in the open canopy of the golf cart.

“Yeah, you too.” Pacifica replied.

She watched the small cart putter its way down the road and back toward the Mystery Shack as she sat inside the plush luxury interior of her own car.

_Well… that just happened. _She didn’t reject me… but she didn’t say yes. She said she had to think… but that’s better than it could have gone if it all went wrong._  
_

_Now what do I do?_


	3. Chapter 3

The past few days had been a confusingly dreamlike blur to Mabel, and even Stan had noticed that she wasn’t quite being her usual self. He’d even given her the rest of the afternoon off after he’d noticed her almost selling a bunch of merchandise at half-price in her distracted state, hastily replacing her with Dipper and telling her to go clear her head. Mabels thoughts had been going in circles though and she wasn’t quite sure how she was supposed to get them clear once again.

_PACIFICA kissed me._

_Pacifica KISSED me._

_Pacifica kissed ME._

Nope. No matter where she put the emphasis it never seemed to make sense… especially since Mabel still had no real clue what her own feelings on the whole situation were. She lay back on her bed up in the attic, shifting uncomfortably against the creaking springs of the hard old mattress and staring with unseeing eyes at the ceiling.

_Pacifica likes me… like, LIKES me. I didn’t even know she even could like anyone that way - I mean, whenever I used to point out a cute guy at the mall she’d never seem interes… oh._

_Okay, so that makes more sense now I guess._

_Alright so, she likes girls. That’s cool, there’s nothing weird about that or anything - I mean, so does Stephanie from art club back home and a few of the other girls in class. Love is love, and everyone’s just gotta do their own thing, you know? Pacifica liking girls wouldn’t change anything about our friendship._

_I’m the girl she likes though, so that might end up changing things. Do I want things to change?_

Mabel felt her cheeks warm with color as she recalled the night of The Kiss (her mind had a habit of adding significant capitals to important moments in her life).

_She kissed me… but I definitely kissed her right back. Why did I do that? I mean… I’d never thought of her like that before. Am I thinking of her like that now?_

_Argh! This is so confusing._

Mabel puffed out her cheeks and blew a frustrated sigh out from her pursed lips, giggling a little to herself at the fart-y sound it made. Sometimes you just need the simple things to smile.

_I gotta figure this out now though before I go crazy. I might need some advice._

Mabel sat up in bed and crossed her legs under her butt, squirming around for a few minutes to get herself completely comfortable.

“Alright, this looks like the kind of situation where I need to talk to the biggest expert on romance I know,” Mabel said to herself out loud before grabbing the neckline of her sweater and tugging it up over her head.

“Me!” she said, her voice muffled by the wool as she took a trip to Sweater Town.

* * *

Dipper made his way up the stairs to tell Mabel that dinner was ready and found her still huddled in the depths of her sweater, rocking back and forth slightly on the creaking bed springs. She’d been like that when he’d gone to check on her earlier in the evening as well and she hadn’t seem to noticed him coming or going, and the sight of her like that worried him slightly.

“You doing okay there Mabel? You’ve kind of been stuck in your sweater for 3 hours now.” Dipper asked gently, kneeling down beside her to place a friendly hand on Mabel’s back.

“No… yes… I dunno… maybe,” Mabel said noncommittally from the depths of her thick prison-jumpsuit orange sweater.

“Well as long as you’re sure how you’re doing that’s okay,” Dipper said in a slightly sarcastic, but friendly tone.

The top of Mabel’s head poked out from the neck of her sweater and her eyes rolled up to meet Dippers, a worried expression on the visible half of her face.

“Dipper… could I talk with you about something?” she asked. “My visit to Sweater Town wasn’t as productive as I had hoped it would be.”

“Of course. You know you could talk to me about pretty much anything Mabel.” Dipper replied, giving her another friendly pat on the shoulder.

 _Well, that’s true,_ Mabel thought to herself. _Dips always had my back before, so maybe he’d be able to help me out now too?_

Mabel wriggled her head out from her sweater and leaned back against the pillow pile in her bed, her hands resting comfortably on her stomach like she was sitting on a psychiatrists couch. Dipper recognized the routine and grabbed a small notepad out from his pocket, flipping it to a blank page and pretending to scribble a few lines down - sometimes it just helped to play along with Mabel’s games.

“Vell, tell me ven ze problems started,” Dipper asked in a truly terrible German accent.

“Well okay… so Paz kind of kissed me the other day-” Mabel began,

“Wait, who did what now?” Dipper asked, all attempts at an accent abandoned in his confusion.

“You know – Paz. Pacifica Northwest. Tall, blonde-ish, kind of pointy but in a very pretty way.” Mabel explained sarcastically.

“Yes, thank you – I think you’ve successfully jogged my memory there,” Dipper replied with matching sarcasm.

“Well… she kissed me and now I don’t really know what to do about it,” Mabel continued.

“What did Sweater Town Mabel say? She usually gives you pretty good advice,” Dipper said, feeling pretty unsure about what to say in this situation and scrambling for the first available option out.

“Are you really sure you want to be encouraging my schizophrenia?” Mabel replied with a small smile.

“I think after all the things I’ve seen, I believe that its the people who think that they are totally sane who are the crazy ones.” Dipper answered.

“Well she didn’t have any good advice this time - mostly she was just being kind of a jerk.” Mabel said with a small frown.

“A real psychiatrist might have something to say about that, but that’s a problem for another time,” Dipper said. “So as for your current dilemma - well, lets figure this whole thing out.”

“Could you do the accent? I feel a bit more comfortable discussing this when you do the accent,” Mabel asked playfully.

“Fine, I vill do ze accent.” Dipper said with a roll of his eyes.

“Thanks.” Mabel replied cheerfully.

“Okay, so - what, I mean, _vhat_ did you do vhen she kissed you?” Dipper asked.

“Weeeelll… I kinda sorta kissed her back.” Mabel said.

“Kinda sorta?” Dipper asked skeptically.

“Okay, so I definitely kissed her back.” Mabel admitted.

“Interesting - and vhat does zat tell you?” Dipper asked.

“Well… I don’t know! I mean, did I do it because I’m attracted to her or because the kiss was nice or… I don’t know.” Mabel said.

“Vell, ARE you attracted to her?” Dipper said, laying on the accent thick and corny.

“Do I think she’s pretty you mean? Yes, obviously she’s gorgeous.” Mabel replied evasively.

Dipper nodded and scratched more imaginary lines in his pad.

“Gorgeous.” he said aloud, pointedly fake-underlining the word several times.

“Well, just because I think she’s pretty doesn’t mean that I’m into her though. I mean she’s one of my best friends and I always have a blast whenever we hang out but I haven’t ever really thought of her like that before.” Mabel said.

“Before - does that mean that you’re thinking of her like that now?” Dipper asked.

Mabel blushed slightly.

“Maybe… kinda… I keep thinking back to her kissing me and that it was nice. Then I had a really intense and confusing dream last night where we were hanging out with a bunch of those lady-centaurs from _Fantasia_ and feeding each other grapes.” Mabel said, her voice trailing off.

“Wait, what?” Dipper asked in horrified confusion.

“None of your business… why did I even say that last part out loud? Just pretend that you didn’t hear that!” Mabel said hurriedly.

“I’m desperately trying to.” Dipper said with a grimace. He’d do practically anything for his sister, but helping her analyze her weird cartoon-y sex dreams was definitely not on the list of ‘practically anything’.

“I mean though… all that stuff I just said - does that really mean that I _like_ her?” Mabel babbled out, her head bobbing from side to side as she rattled off her thoughts one by one.

“Is the answer to that question supposed to be 'yes’? Because it sounds like you were leading up to a 'yes’ there.”

Mabel paused and scuffed her foot gently against the wall of the attic.

“It really did, didn’t it?”

“Yep”

“Alright. Welp, I guess liking girls is just another thing we have in common now. Go twins!” Mabel said with a quiet nervous chuckle.

There was an awkward silent pause and at that exact moment a cricket chirped loudly in the room causing the two to burst into startled laughter at that old cliché wriggling its way into their lives. Once the fit of giggles had died down Mabel had glanced quickly at Dipper, rubbing her arm in a quietly nervous fashion.

“Hey… um… you aren’t, you know… weirded out or anything by all this are you? Like… about me maybe-kinda liking another girl?” she asked in a halting voice.

Dipper glanced back at her with a somewhat surprised expression on his face.

“Mabel, c'mon – you’ve known me literally all of your life. Have I _ever_ seemed like the kind of person who’d be a dick about something like this?” Dipper asked, sounding just slightly hurt.

“No – sorry, I didn’t mean it like that… its just this has all been kind of freaking me out. Part of it was me worrying if people would treat me different just because I might… you know,” Mabel said, trailing off shyly.

Dipper reached out a comforting hand and placed it on his sisters shoulder, giving it a friendly squeeze.

“Well no matter what happens you know that you’ll always have me on your side. I’m sure that this probably wouldn’t bug Stan too much either since I know that you are definitely his favorite.” Dipper said.

“I am?” Mabel asked.

“Definitely - he says it all the time… loudly… in front of me.” Dipper said with a frown.

Mabel wriggled herself back into a sitting position. The talk with Dipper had really helped clear her head and she was feeling a lot better than she had been in days. So she liked Pacifica - knowing that was a lot easier than just being confused… the question now was what to do about it.

Once again she felt lost and decided to turn to her brother for guidance, even if he wasn’t exactly the most inspiring example of romantic success.

“Okay well… you’ve sort of dated girls before – got any pointers for me?” Mabel asked.

Dipper frowned back at her, slightly offended.

“What do you mean 'sort of’? I had a girlfriend almost all of last year!” Dipper objected.

“Oh, right! Whats her face? The one with the eyes…” Mabel said, struggling to recall the girls name.

“Samantha.” Dipper replied flatly.

“Yes - Samantha! Yes… yeah, I wasn’t a fan of her.” Mabel confessed.

“Well I’m not a big fan of Pacifica, but if you want to date her then be my guest.” Dipper replied.

“Sorry… um… well, do you have any brotherly advice for me about this sort of thing?” Mabel asked in an apologetic tone.

“Why are you asking me? You’re a girl and she’s one of your best friends – you probably have a much better idea than me about how to go about doing this.” Dipper said grumpily.

“Well I don’t know if the rules are different here… I mean… um… dang it! Darn, darn and double darn!” Mabel muttered as she hopped off the bed and started to pace back and forth across the attic bedroom.

“Careful with the language there Mabel, Stan might hear you.” Dipper teased.

“Are you going to do anything besides make fun of me?” Mabel snapped angrily, tears of frustration welling up in the corners of her eyes.

“Look, I’m sorry… okay, here’s some real advice – you already know that she likes you, obviously, so that makes it easier. Just go and tell her that you’ve got a thing for her too. Bam, done and done.” Dipper said reassuringly with a nod of his head.

“Just like that?” Mabel asked skeptically.

“Yeah, sure – I mean, the most stressful part of the whole relationship thing is putting yourself out there and facing rejection and stuff… but she’s the one who kissed you, right? So that means that you probably don’t have anything to worry about on the rejection front.” Dipper replied.

 _She_ **was** _the one who kissed me,_ Mabel thought, _and that means that she was the one who was putting herself out there and facing all that rejection stuff… and I haven’t talked to her in days… I can’t imagine how stressed out she must be feeling right now._

_I hope she wants to hear from me…_

_I hope I can say what I want to say without messing it up._

_Oh my gosh! I have to call her right away… wait, maybe callings not enough? This is the kind of thing you’ve got to do in person._

“Gotta go Dip, thanks for the advice – don’t tell Stan I’m stealing the cart again!” Mabel called out as she dashed her way down the stairs.

“You’re welcome,” Dipper called back down.

He glanced around the now empty attic room, feeling a sudden rush of confusion.

 _What the hell just happened?_ he thought to himself.

* * *

For the past few days Pacifica had been treating her phone like an unexploded land mine that had somehow found its way into her purse. She could feel its weight and whenever it buzzed from a new call her heart would catch in her throat for a second before she realized that she hadn’t heard the distinctive sound of Mabels ringtone (some lame song from the 80’s that she insisted on singing at the top of her lungs whenever it found its way on the radio). She wasn’t sure whether to be disappointed or relieved that Mabel hadn’t called her since the last time they had hung out… it really felt like a little of both combined.

It had only been a few days since they had spoken, and they didn’t exactly talk to each other every day normally anyway so it wasn’t like Mabel was avoiding her more than normal… but then again there hadn’t been this whole situation between them in the past so Pacifica was in totally unfamiliar territory about what was 'normal’ now. Every time she’d reached for the phone to be the first one to make the call she’d stopped herself at the last second – maybe it was fear of rejection & maybe it was just her normal stubborn Northwest pride, but she couldn’t bring herself to be the one to do it.

_I already did what I did… I’m not going to push anything. If she’s interested she’ll let me know._

_At least, I hope she will._

_Like it would even matter if she was interested though… I mean, its not like I could date her. I know that I can’t… that’s why I’ve never done anything about it until that stupid mistake of mine._

_Maybe if I’m lucky she’ll just tell me to forget the whole thing and we can go back to how it was before._

_Maybe._

Pacifica’s pessimistic train of thought was interrupted when she heard the buzz of her phone rattling around on the mahogany nightstand near her head and the single chirp of an incoming text. She reaches out to take it slowly at first, as if she were about to grab a chunk of red hot metal.

_What if it’s Mabel? Crap… what am I going to say to her? What is she going to say to me?_

Her hand stops halfway to the phone at the thought, but she sneers at her own hesitation and forces herself to just grab it quickly and get this over with.

_So what if it’s Mabel? I don’t have anything to hide after all. My deep dark secret is out in the open now… at least it is to her anyway._

Her fingers slide over the screen and unlock it, revealing the words underneath and she feels her heartbeat give an odd jolt when she sees that the text actually is from Mabel after all. She takes a calming breath in through her nose and tries to prepare herself for whatever the message might say. She’d been freaking out over the past few days, dreading this moment but now that it’s finally come she feels almost relaxed. No matter what happens now, at least she’ll have gotten it all over with.

 **Mabel:** Hi

Pacifica double checks a few times to make sure she didn’t miss anything.

Nope. Just 'Hi’.

She gives a loud and unladylike snort of frustration at herself. She’d worked herself up into a big dramatic mess for a simple 'Hi’? She flexes her thumbs and decides to send a scorching reply back – something to just let out all the stress that she’d built up waiting and wondering and worrying what was going to happen. She glares furiously at the screen, trying to think of the perfect combination of words to get her point across… something _devastating_. Wait… no, not devastating – she doesn’t want to drive Mabel away now that she’s gotten a hold of her. She can’t seem too needy though, that is NOT how she wants to handle this situation. Crap.

For all of her worldliness and haughty attitude Pacifica was honestly incredibly unsure of how she was supposed to proceed from here. She’d managed to avoid having a boyfriend throughout high school by just immediately shooting down any guy who’d asked her out and telling her friends that they weren’t good enough… it may have made her seem even more stuck up than she already was, but it at least kept the real reason of why she didn’t want to date any of them a secret. Of course, she’d also never had a girlfriend either because _that_ wouldn’t have gone over well with her parents or her friends or pretty much anyone else that she knew… and none of the girls that she may have given a thoughtful glance to over those years had seemed worth the risk of exposing herself like that. None of them till Mabel came along that was.

After two minutes of silence her fingers tap the screen twice and her reply is sent.

 **Pacifica:** Hi

Not the perfect message that she’d been hoping for, but it would have to do.

The wait for the next text stretches on and on, leaving Pacifica starting to gnaw the inside of her cheek with frustration. She almost breaks down and gets ready to send out another message when her phone is hit by a sudden hurricane of incoming messages.

 **Mabel:** I feel like a giant butt for not getting in touch with you earlier

 **Mabel:** Sorry about that

 **Mabel:** Just been doing a lot of thinking

 **Mabel:** TONS of thinking

 **Mabel:** I have all kinds of stuff that I want to tell you

 **Mabel:** But I want to say it in person though

 **Mabel:** Because it feels really important

 **Mabel:** Is that okay?

Pacifica stares at the glowing screen of the phone, her breath catching short in her chest. She quickly calms herself down again. Nonchalant. That’s the way to go here.

 **Pacifica:** Sure, I guess. When were you thinking?

 **Mabel:** Are you busy right now?

Pacifica quirks her eyebrow at the phone.

 **Pacifica:** No, but I’m not sure if I’d be able to head out. The garage has been kind of locked down tighter than normal ever since we stole my car.

 **Mabel:** Okay well

 **Mabel:** Try not to be too creeped out but

 **Mabel:** I’m kind of already waiting outside your window

Pacifica hops up from her bed and spreads open the curtains to her bedroom window. Sure enough, she spots the shadowy outline of her brunette friend in the moonlit yard waving to her with a sort of sheepish expression on her face. Pacifica isn’t quite sure if she should feel touched or unnerved and her brain settles for a mixture of the two, which isn’t that unusual of an emotional combination for her when she deals with Mabel.

 **Pacifica:** Well, I guess now is a good time since you’re already here.

 **Pacifica:** Just duck in the bushes or something until I can figure out how to sneak you in.

Pacifica see’s Mabel shake her head and then turn back to her own phone to send a reply. The phone buzzes in Pacifica’s hand a moment later and she feels a sense of apprehension at the message glowing up at her from the screen.

 **Mabel:** Why go through all that trouble? Just open up your window, stand back and then I’ll handle the rest.

Mabel reaches into the depths of her hideously bright orange sweater and pulls out the familiar shape of her grapple-gun. She brandishes it cheerfully in Pacifica’s direction, causing the blonde to quickly duck behind the windowsill – she’s had enough experience with that crazy thing to know of its nasty habit of misfiring seemingly at random.

 **Pacifica:** Fine – just stop pointing it at me!

 **Mabel:** Oops. Sorry.

Pacifica opens up the large double-paned window and presses herself as far back against the wall as she can. Luckily there doesn’t seem to be anything too fragile near the window so this shouldn’t be too much of a disaster… but you never could tell when it came to the unstable combination of Mabel and her grappling hook though.

 **Pacifica:** You may fire when ready, weirdo

She doesn’t have to wait long before she hears the distinctive PAMF sound of Mabel’s favorite toy firing from down below and sees the incredibly dangerous metal hook shooting through her open window like a lost bird. The grapple line drags and skitters across the carpet as it gets reeled in and Pacifica winces to herself when she sees the shiny steel barbs of the hook dig themselves deep into the carved wooden frame of the windowsill.

_Mom is SO not going to like that. Then again I always hated the color of the frame, so maybe she’ll let me get it repainted how_ **I** _want this time?_

_Silver linings._

Now that the immediate danger had passed, Pacifica edged her way over toward the window to check on her friends’ progress. She saw Mabel scrabbling to pull herself over the sill and offered her a helping hand, grunting slightly from the effort of hauling her friend the last few feet up the wall and into the room. Mabel dug the hook out of the windowsill with an apologetic expression and slipped her grapple gun back out of sight once she had gotten its’ cable safely reeled away. Pacifica offered her a seat beside her on the bed, which Mabel accepted gratefully after the strain of grappling her way up the wall.

“I’m going to have to see if Dipper can help me put a stronger motor on this thing or something – I’m not sure that it was designed to carry a full grown adult.” Mabel said as she dusted herself off.

“I can’t believe you managed to sneak over the wall and into my house with no one noticing.” Pacifica said.

“Twice.” Mabel pointed out, recalling the way she had easily snuck in to rescue Pacficia from boredom a few days ago.

“And you did it dressed in that really obvious day-glo monstrosity of a sweater no less. The security in this place is a joke,” Pacifica said, her tone playful even if her words were somewhat harsh.

For all of the stress that she’d been feeling over the past few days, the sight of Mabel being her usual weird self quickly managed to put Pacifica back in a good mood.

“Is it really that your security is bad, or is it that I’m just too awesome to be caught by it?” Mabel pondered playfully, giving her friend an exaggeratedly cocky grin.

“Either way, it’s a little disturbing to consider.” Pacifica said with a roll of her eyes.

“What you need is a bodyguard – someone to hang around and protect you from any weirdoes with grappling hooks that may break in.” Mabel joked.

“Not a bad idea. Know anyone who would want the job?” Pacifica asked, her arms crossing over her chest and her eyebrow raising challengingly.

“I might offer my services if the pay was right,” Mabel replied with a grin.

Pacifica considered making a joke questioning Mabel’s sudden urge to guard her body, but decided against it. She still felt herself get slightly flustered at the thought though. She was partly relieved that things seemed to be going so normally considering everything that had been going on in her head over the last few days… but normal wasn’t what she wanted right now.

“So, um… what brings you trespassing today?” Pacifica asked, wincing to herself at the awkward phrasing and feeling like a coward for not just outright asking Mabel what she really wanted to know.

The sudden question throws Mabel off her ease and she gives Pacifica a quick nervous glance.

“Right. Okay so, um… like I said, I had been thinking a lot and… well, you like me right?” Mabel asked hesitantly.

Pacifica bit back the sarcastic reply that was trying to worm its way out her mouth, and not for the first time in her life she cursed her naturally sharp tongue. This was a situation that called for some sincerity, and she was pretty out of practice in that whole area… but at least it always came easier to her around Mabel.

“Yeah, I do,” Pacifica said, forcing herself not to drop her eyes and just look Mabel straight in the face without flinching.

 _Alright life, do your worst._ Pacifica thought grimly.

“Right, I mean… yeah, kind of a stupid question there Mabel… the kiss was a bit of a giveaway,” Mabel replied with a lightning flash of a smile spreading over her lips and then disappearing once again beneath the nervousness.

“Sorry that I did that out of nowhere,” Pacifica blurted out, “I mean, that was kind of bad of me and I’ve felt like sort of a shitty friend about doing it.”

“No – it’s okay!” Mabel said quickly, “I mean, it was really surprising and stuff when it happened but I couldn’t really get it out of my mind afterward… in a good way… and I’m glad you did it. If you hadn’t I might never have… um…”

Pacifica felt something stir in her chest and took a shaky breath to try and get herself together again. This was impossible - the whole situation was wrong. It’s not like she could even be with Mabel if she wanted to. She’d better just shut this all down now before she does something stupid again.

_Don’t crack, don’t cry and don’t mess things up. Be better than all of that. Like you’re supposed to be._

“It was still a mistake though. I didn’t want you to… I mean, I didn’t want _anyone_ to know or… It just shouldn’t have happened.” Pacifica said, stuttering out the words slightly and growling at herself internally for sounding like a bad actress tripping over her lines.

“C'mon, you expect me to believe that the perfect Pacifica Northwest ever makes mistakes?” Mabel teased gently, reaching her hand out to give her friend a friendly poke on the shoulder.

Whatever shaky foundation had been holding up the remains of Pacifica’s composure crumbled at the sound of those words and she felt her eyes heat up with thick blobby tears. Before the first one could fall down her cheek though she felt Mabel pull her into a warm and extremely tight hug, running her hands soothingly through her long blonde hair. Pacifica feels her shoulders shaking a little, but she tells herself it’s just because she’s cold and she’s definitely _not_ crying either… her face is just leaking a little, that’s all. Pacifica unconsciously leans into the hug and wraps her own arms tight around Mabel.

“I didn’t know what to do, and I was really worried that you wouldn’t want to be friends after you found out and… I don’t even really know what I want.” Pacifica confessed quietly. “I like you a lot though. More than I’ve liked anyone in my life.”

Mabel squeezes her tighter in response and leans her head against Pacifica’s shoulder, her mouth close against her friend’s ear. When Mabel starts to speak her breath tickles Pacifica’s ear in an extremely pleasant way, and she suppresses a shiver that has nothing to do with the temperature.

“I’ve been thinking myself in circles the past few days,” Mabel said, her voice coming out in a rush, “and I’m not really totally sure what I’m feeling yet… but I know that I love spending time with you… and when you kissed me I felt something inside go 'ba-bump’ and I think you’re really pretty and… well I think I like you too and I want to give this whole thing a try… if you want to, that is.”

Pacifica feels herself freeze up. She hasn’t planned for this.

“Are you asking me out?” she says, her voice wavering between hope and skepticism.

“Yes.” Mabel replies.

_What do I say?_

_I mean I can’t say yes… I want to but I_ **can’t** _._

_What would my parents say? Or my friends? Or…_

A strange feeling of lightness swelled in Pacifica’s chest.

… _so what?_

Pacifica snuggled herself tighter into the hug. All those considerations seemed so far away right now, and Mabel was here holding her close and making her feel those stupid warm ridiculous feelings like no one else ever made her feel.

_Screw what they would say. They don’t have to live my life, I do._

“Yes,” she said.

She feels Mabel give a sigh that sounds halfway between relief and happiness.

“Awesome,” Mabel says, pulling back slightly so that she can look Pacifica in the face and she gives her a smile then, wide and shining. On an impulse Mabel leans in and plants a quick peck of a kiss right on Pacifica’s lips that leaves her friend… no, her kind-of-girlfriend, with a pleasantly startled look.

“Wow… asking out girls is _really_ stressful – no wonder Dipper was always so sweaty around the ladies,” Mabel joked suddenly, and Pacifica couldn’t help but bark out a surprised laugh.

 _Stressful isn’t anywhere close to the half of it_ , Pacifica thought to herself, but at this moment she wasn’t thinking about stress or worry or any of that stuff.

Right now what Pacifica was thinking was that it had been days since she’d kissed Mabel that first time, and what she really wanted was to do it again.

She reaches her hand up and runs it lightly through the long soft curls of Mabel’s hair, her lips curling into a small pleased smile at the relaxed expression that comes over Mabel’s face when she does so. Pacifica tilts her head slightly and starts to lean in for a kiss, but to her surprise she feels Mabel’s arms wind their way up her back and around her neck, pulling her in closer to the brunettes’ mischievously smiling face. The latent competitive part of Pacifica’s mind considers trying to pull in Mabel first and regain control of the kiss, but she surrenders at the last second and just lets herself get carried away instead. Mabel’s lips are plump and soft against hers and they taste of one of those candy-flavored lip glosses that Pacifica always teases her for buying instead of real lipstick – at this moment though she is prepared to take back everything bad she said about them because the sweet flavor is adding another layer of enjoyment to the kiss that she hadn’t expected.

Of course she didn’t know what to expect really because her own romantic experiences had been limited pretty much to fantasies and that one kiss, and Pacifica is quickly finding that fantasies are a very pale substitute for the reality of finding herself here in Mabel’s arms. So many little things she hadn’t thought of – details that hadn’t occurred to her that just made everything feel so much better than even her vivid imagination had pictured.

She feels Mabel’s short nails brushing along the sensitive skin of her neck and trailing pleasantly through her hair and it’s all she can do not to purr happily in response like a cat getting its ears scratched. Her own hands trail along Mabel’s cheek, stroking the soft skin there as her jaw opens and she feels the unexpectedly pleasurable sensation of Mabel’s tongue stroking against her own. Pacifica responds by kissing back just as hard, nipping Mabel’s plump sweet lips between her teeth and tangling her fingers gently in the lengths of Mabel’s soft brown curls. The two squirm and shift about on the surface of Pacifica’s overly soft mattress, trying to find some comfortable way to sit without having to strain their necks kissing and on an impulse Pacifica ends up grabbing Mabel by the front of her baggy orange sweater and pulling her down onto the mattress.

The abrupt fall causes the girls to break the kiss and they end up lying side by side, staring at each other in the dim yellow light of Pacifica’s lamp with wide eyes.

“That was… wow.” Pacifica said, slightly breathless from excitement.

“Agreed,” Mabel said with a wide grin.

 _I can’t believe I even hesitated about doing this again,_ Mabel thought to herself as she felt a pleasant thrill travel up her spine.

Pacifica’s hand reached out and lazily ran its way from Mabel’s shoulder and down her side, her mind still in a whirl and not quite believing everything that had happened.

“So, we’re going out now then? Just like that?” Pacifica asked skeptically.

“Yep, just like that,” Mabel said cheerfully, “So – what do you want to do first, new girlfriend?”

“Is making out some more an option?” Pacifica asked honestly, her eyes darting down to the inviting curve of Mabel’s lips once again.

“Pffft, yeah of course,” Mabel said with a flush of color coming to her cheeks, “but I meant, you know – date type stuff. Like going to the movies or something?”

“Date later, make-out now,” Pacifica said with a pout, “I have a lot of catching up to do.”

“Works for me,” Mabel said with a playful shrug before wriggling her way closer and wrapping her arms around Pacifica once again, feeling a rush of excitement at the warmth of Pacifica melting against her.


End file.
